2208/Bank Robbery: Kings Row

Bank Robbery: Kings Row
Date of Scene:	11 May 2015
Location:	Paragon City <CoH>
Synopsis:	A bank robbery on Kings Row! Heroes show up to stop it! But can they do so without any innocents getting hurt?
Cast of Characters:	Maya, 750, 768, 769

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Demetrios Vasilikos (769) has posed:
    The Police Radio has reported that there's a bank robbery in progress at the exchange bank in Kings Row! Hostages have been taken by a group of death-worshipping gang members known as the Skulls. On TOP of that, they have a bomb! The police can't make a move. They aren't equipped for it and can't risk the hostages. But those with capabilities above even the training of law enforcement may be able to make a difference in stopping this plot without any innocent people getting injured!

    Once the good guys get in the door, with the police barricading and encircling the building outside, they are greeted with a spacious room with marbled tiles on the floor, some grey and white, others painted green, leaving gaps of unpainted corners every once in awhile to create a diamond-patern on the floor. There are some tables, and those little metal poles with ropes that banks use to indicate where people are to form into lines while waiting for their money, and so on. A booth takes up a significant portion of the room on the left-hand side, with teller windows.

    Some guys in skull masks, leather jackets, and jeans, are scattered around in small groups, discussing their plans or keeping an eye out for police interference.

    A pair are patrolling past and will likely be in a position to spot the heroes soon. Stealth might be an option... But so might be rushing them before they can hurt the tellers or blow up the place!

    "I love the way normal people fear us."

    "Whatever. I just want the money."

Cory (768) has posed:
    For whatever reason, Cory is continuing to fight in every possible opportunity that arises. This includes bank robberies by weird gangs. If the police can't handle it and need heroes, then these must be a decent challenge... right?

    Saiyans grow stronger with every fight, every injury, every endeavor. Even if it's a minor one...

    But stealth is important. Very important! Can't have the bomb going off and ruining everything?

    So when the two thugs come wandering around into view she reacts instantly! "Oh no they don't!"

    Wind fills the ground floor from her swift movement, quicker than the eye can see. one moment she's standing, the next she's simply RIGHT THERE near the two interlopers, hands outstretched to either side. "nighty night!"

    Both hands clap together, with the thugs' heads in-between!

    There's nothing quite like the old classic HEADBONK KNOCKOUT, is there?

    Hopefully she controls her strength right or this will get very disgusting.

Maya has posed:
Maya's responding a bit later than Cory is however she's got into the spirit of things. She did register herself as the Blue Witch so once again she should play the part right? So she does look like a witch with thigh high boots, long elbop glove hat and a swim suit like chest bit. She's also packing several fate card,s sadly for the Skulls? She's not quite the blaster they would assume her to be, she's looking very much the part the witch. A blue witch to be sure. She's smirks at Cory.

"Nice take down let's go."

Rebound (750) has posed:
    "Hey Cory, save some for the rest of us." Rebound mutters as the Saiyan moves and knocks out the two thugs before anyone gets a chance to take them out, "I wanna get my hands on more of these jerks too." She still has that skull-patterened hockey mask she stole from one before. She actually had it modified so she can wear it, but she doesn't have it on at the moment, "Lets keep moving, lets do this fast and smooth. Saving the hostages takes priority."

Demetrios Vasilikos (769) has posed:
    As Cory leaps into action suddenly, one of the Skulls (a Gravedigger Chopper) pulls out a fireman's axe and calls out, "You want to fight, Cory!?" While he and his baseball-bat wielding companion are quickly defeated, something interesting is revealed! It seems that Cory has made enough of a name for herself to be recognized by tbhe bad guys! Well, she WAS in the news...

    There's other groups around that don't seem to have noticed the altercation by the doors yet, or the Blue Witch or Rebound, thanks to the little alcove the heroes are in. But they're unlikely to remain oblivious forever. In a far corner on the right side of the room, near the back, there's a lady being menaced by a group of Skulls. Unfortunately, there's a bunch of other Skulls between the doors and her.

    There's also a hallway into the back of the bank, on the far side of the teller booths, on the left. That's probably where the leader is, and the bomb. You know, for the vault.

    The sound of an alarm can be heard ringing dimly in the distance. It's probably going to be much louder when they actually get back there.

Cory (768) has posed:
    "Fight you? Nah! Gonna PULVERIZE you!" HEADTHUNK! And the two are down. Cory lands near the toppling (and quickly gone) thugs, and quickly answers the others. "There's plenty for everyone. We'll have to split up anyways!"

    She also takes the time to breathe, and ponder the meaning of them knowing her name. "... So they pay attention to reports and stuff like that... maybe I should take the weights off..."

Rebound (750) has posed:
    "I dunno how they knew you. Unless you're already getting a reputation." Rebound says as she moves up towards Cory and near the knocked out Skulls, "I got the news group though. Watch this."

    Bounding up through the air, she barely clears under the ceiling as she comes down into the middle of the group, making a quick sweeping motion with her tail to try to take them all off of their feet as she comes around, and stomp one of the weaker looking ones while they're down.

Maya has posed:
The Blue Witch is now racing in after rebound she's making use of magic thankfully to hobble the skulls. She knows they have some minor magical skills and might catch on? Still it should give Rebound a chance to make use of it. Cursing them mostly or otherwise using chaos based fate magic to slow the Skull's movment. ALso her outfit is a bit on the distracting side, which for once is actually inentional after all if they are slower to react it gives her more time to act.

Demetrios Vasilikos (769) has posed:
    The enemies that Rebound leaps into the midst of are definitely not expecting her. Her tail sweep achieves the desired effect as well, sending them flying into the air with a veritable *P-KOW!* from the force before they come back down with thumps on the floor. The one who is stomped doesn't get back up again. A few of the others don't either. But the rest are scrambling to their feet very unsteadily. And a Gravedigger in one of the other groups has noticed what's going on. He stares in surprise for several seconds, then draws a hand gun and takes a shot at Rebound! The Death Head Gunner leading the group turns, and then so does the rest of the Skulls there, and they also join in! Soon, bullets are whizzing by, and the Gunner has pulled out a submachine gun that he lets out a short burst of rapid-fire rounds with!

    Scrapper pulls, man.

    At least they seem to be restraining their fire somewhat to avoid hitting the allies who are starting to surround the mutant.

    Maya's magic helps to keep those Skulls looking to gang up on Rebound from acting as quickly, her curses slowing their rate of attack and their ability to run to join their companions. This is good, because no amount of distractingness is going to protect the Blue Witch or Rebound from bullets. In the middle of a firefight, the focus of the bad guys is, 'kill the heroes', not 'check out what they're wearing'.

    Either way, it appears that any magic the Skulls have doesn't protect them from Chaos. Now if she were trying to shoot them with darkness or other negative energy attacks, that would be a DIFFERENT story...

Cory (768) has posed:
    Cory was hanging back while the others advanced for a good reason - if she goes charging it'll be VERY noisy. So she first waits for Maya and Rebound to get most of their attention before swooping in herself. In she goes though, wreathed in white Ki. A fierce HEADBUTT is her opening blow, hoping to knock one goon into another then go flipping up to the ceiling and bounce off for a dropkick onto another!

Maya has posed:
Maya is not a scrapper she's some strange love child of a defender and a blaster. She doesn't quite fis the local templates that's fo sure. However she's moving to keep some crowd control going and she smirks a little bit. Sadly it seems the Skulls are more focused than some criminals Maya's had to deal with. Oh well she's now going to make use of several focused blasts of water to keep the Skulls even more off balance.

Rebound (750) has posed:
Scrappers are great at pulls. They're just not he best at tanking pulls. Rebound manages to pull ab unch of guys, though bullets are not something she likes dealing with. She likes them even less than the blasters people in her own home world use. She turns to one side as the bullets come in trying to get herself with one of the Skulls between her and the gun toting badguys, "Hey, catch!"

    As she calls out to the guy with the gun she kicks his buddy in the chest to knock him through the air and into the gun toting criminal.

Demetrios Vasilikos (769) has posed:
    Cory's unexpected charge is unexpected. She smashes into a couple Skulls, and then smashed another into the ground with her drop kick! Maya's water blasts and debiitating effects are also effective at knocking down the gangers and keeping them there! Their disturbing human bone masks do a real good job of hiding their eyes in seemingly empty sockets, making it difficult to tell if they're REALLY knocked out. Who the hell wears someone else's face on their face? Seriously!

    But between the three of these heroes, and Rebound kicking a guy into the Lieutenant hard enough to knock him into a wall and bang the unprotected back of his head ona drinking fountain's corner, the enemies are dealt with!

    The trapped teller rushes forwards to thank them, does so, and then heads for the exit. Now for the people in the back of the bank!

Cory (768) has posed:
    "These guys aren't so STRONG but they sure are creepy. Are they wearing real SKULLS? Ewww." Ewww indeed. Cory lands next to Maya though and claps a hand on her shoulder, grinning. "Good teamwork. Next up, the bomb! And other hostages..."

Maya has posed:
Maya's manage to help deal with what's left of the Skulls thankfully an now she tilts her head a bit looking at the skulls.

"Defilers of the dead."

Maya comments for a moment, however they have to make.

"THey are street thugs who have figured out how to you some level of magic mostly on thier own. Be concerned if they ever find a proper techer. Now the bomb...and anyone else they are holding."

Maya's going to use anothe spell to cloak and scout ahead as she becomes invisable!

Demetrios Vasilikos (769) has posed:
    The scouting ahead turns up that there's another couple rooms in back: one behind the teller desk, and the other is a long hallway leading to the vault. More Skulls are positioned within both. Another teller, a balding man in eyeglasses and a suit, is being menaced in one of these rooms. It looks like the vault might actually already be open. It's possible they forced someone to open it for them, and the bomb is being kept to blow up anything left that they can't carry! What fiends!

    Also, the alarm is louder back here and more annoying.

    No sign of the guy in charge yet...

Cory (768) has posed:
    Unfortunately Cory knows litle about how banks are designed and operated, she's only een in a few of them! Going this far in is an adventure that leaves her looking around corners and into rooms. "Messing around with magic.. amateurs...? Beter be REALLY careful. You never know what an amateur will do!" At least she does know THAT lesson, huh?

    And in one of those rooms, there's another teller. Cory's frown turns angry, lips peeling back to show clenched teeth. "Jerks. Does picking on weaklings tickle you that much?!" With another display of EXTREME speed she's up in front of them, swinging around in a spectacular KICK that will send some of the thugs right into Maya's line of fire. COMBO TIME!

    Or maybe Rebound's. Or maybe both.

Rebound (750) has posed:
    Criminals flying towards her are something that gets an instant reation from Rebound as she drops backwards and lands on her tail. Now her tail allows her enough balance to pull both feet off of the ground, angling herself to kick the incoming crook.

    Now she has an angle to get him through the air and up into the ceiling. It'll be a nice resting place for him. This kick can knock over a pickup truck so she should be able to put the hurt on this guy but good.

Maya has posed:
Maya is moving ahead and she finds that there's a few skulls there with more hostages. She knows she can't get all of them and where's the boss? Gangs like this tended to have a leader who would stand out. However hotages first right? Cory gives her a awesome set up and she doesn't move to cast a spell. No this lady may have something from the boxing pool. She pulls back one arm and will deck the Skull that's coming for her. She ducks and then clips aiming to kick another hopefully into a wall.

Demetrios Vasilikos (769) has posed:
    The team work of Cory leaping into the fray and tossing some enemies towards Rebound, who then kicks them, clears out the area around the teller. But now there's shotgun blasts and gun fire from Gravediggers and Death Heads in the hall, directly into the area behind the teller's counter. Thankfully, the invisible Maya kicks one guy who was moving forward to try to get a better angle on Rebound in the hall outside the vault's entry corridor into a wall. And that draws attention from some others who start trying to shoot at the cloaked hero, taking just enough pressure off Cory and Rebound that, regardless if they got shot or not, they may be able to charge in and take out the distracted enemies while their eyes are off of them.

    Either way, the second teller manages to escape out into the waiting area of the bank and make for the door! Now they just need to defeat the Skulls, their leader, and disarm the bomb, and they're done!

Rebound (750) has posed:
    Rebound manages to take out a couple of the Skulls with her powerful kicks, but a shotgun blast knocks her to the ground. She groans. No armor means that all she has to protect her is her thick hide. That hide doesn't seem to have done much to protect her.

    She slides away to get behind cover and try to compose herself. Shotguns hurt no matter what world you're in it seems.

Cory (768) has posed:
    With Maya causing a major distraction outside, Cory raises a hand -- BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAM!

    Yes, without warning a brilliant light flares from her outstretched palm and just goes plowing through the hallway! Straight for more of the skull-wearing gangies. It will hit like a sledgehammer if it strikes, picking people straight off their feet and slamming them into WALLS.

    Might get a bit messy...

Maya has posed:
Maya has been doing some pretty good work here after her last attack however the spell breaks. It tends to not hold when one's getting too violent with it. Still it's cuased a lot of havoc and she gives a bit of a grin on her face. "Hi boys, play time's over!"

Maya's now back on her feet and the Blue Witch attemps another spell to just launche anotehr chain of slow spells.

Demetrios Vasilikos (769) has posed:
    With Maya's slow spells, the Skulls are prevented from moving quickly enough to get out of the way of Cory's attack, even if they had noticed it. They can neither run nor dodge. Thankfully, it doesn't get too messy, and even more thankuflly, Rebound doesn't get shot any further. It does clear the corridor of bad guys, leaving them all in an unconscious heap that eventually gets teleported away. Maya can probably heal Rebound to get her back at full strength and best condition easily enough.

    Now they just need to get to the vault, at the end of the corridor, and punch the boss. And make sure no explosions go off.

    Easy, right?

    After all, if these heroes can stand up to blunt/sharp objects, and firearms, then what else can these death-cultist street thugs have to throw at them?

Rebound (750) has posed:
Rebound has recovered a bit, though she's still bleeding unless Maya casts a heal spell or two her way. She's still going to finish the fight though, "Hey Cory!" She calls out, "You know how to defuse bombs? Because I don't so if you can do that after we take this guy down.." She hopes Cory or Maya can take the bomb out.

    Hurting or not she's going to move up alongside Cory so they can take the Skulls boss out

Cory (768) has posed:
    "Noooo idea about bombs. Best I can think of is taking somewhere it can't hurt anything and blowing it up there." She's been disappointed so far in this. The thugs are not challenging and not getting her to push herself very far, she's only had to worry about a few bullets, and the situation doesn't have her very excited yet.

    Maybe the leader of the crew will have some muscle to him, she hopes!

Maya has posed:
Maya says "I'll handle the bombs."

She's not the best but she has some experiance with expositve and did learn a few things from a verty tail chaidsn bounty hunter back home. AT worse she can also attempt to excase it in water to help dampen it right? Also the classes in the basics she got when she got her ID. She mutters something and is going to get to work on it.

Demetrios Vasilikos (769) has posed:
    As the trio advance to the end of the corridor and turn towards the vault, with the alarm still blaring (wailing klaxxons as well now, not just the shrill sound of an electricity-powered bell buzzing constantly), they almost immediately get to deal with the fun of a muscular man in a sleeveless black vest, grey top, and faded grey pants, face adorned with the typical Skulls mask that all members wear, made out of someone's actual skull. The Bone Daddy is flanked by a pair of Death Head Gunners.

    "Die, heroes!" the Boss yells as he unleashes a fast-moving cloud of murky, deathly power from his hand. It clings to and eats away at anyone it touches (if anyone) for several seconds, gradually dissolving flesh and life energy. The Gunners open up with their submachine guns too.

    "We'll get them, Mr. Bones!" one of the Gunners calls out, unnecessarily. The bomb appears to be a couple of metal barrels of something probably volatile taped together with a detonator and wires and such on top. To get to it, fighting past the Skulls will likely be necessary first.

Cory (768) has posed:
    "urrrrgh. Please tell me someone can shut that thing up!" If she could just see whatever speaker it's coming from she might just blast it. would, anyways, if she didn't just come face-to-face with someone who looks far more interesting than the others!

    Black eyes shimmer with interest, like a child that's just had food set before them, and the strange man doesn't disappoint. "What the--"

    Her arms come up defensively to protect her face. A somewhat futile effort but... enough is diverted from her face at least. Only her arms start sizzling. "Grrrrghhhh... that's not gonna stop me!"

    Sure it's eating away at her Ki, but she has LOTS of it.

    Cory slams her feet to the ground and flashily clenches both hands, bringing them to her sides. "HuuuuuooooooooooAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!" Ignoring the pain, gathers Ki at an alarming rate! In moments it's leaking out, forming a rather visible aura of whitish 'flames.' They spin and expand, pushing back the cloud. Pure life energy is consumable indeed, but it means the dark cloud can no longer reach flesh!

    "So you guys like death. Well here's something you can only do if you're full of life!"

    Both her hands migrate to one side at her waist, fingers opening to form a cup-shape with only a little space between them. "Kaaaaaa...meeee...." Between those hands light shines! A blue-white sphere appears from a point and grows, filling the space and remaining contained once it's out of room to expand. "Haaaaa.... meeeeeee" It pulses and sizzles briefly, just before Cory thrusts both hands forwards, wrists together and palms spread wide. "HAAAAAAAA!!!"

    Well, it's hardly what it COULD be if she were outside and not holding back, but a man-sized blue-white beam erupts from that sphere, thick as a gushing geyser! The head churns, flares, and bulges... on a collision course with the Boss!

Rebound (750) has posed:
    Since Cory does seem to have the boss well in hand at the time being, Rebound thinks she'll go after the two gunners with him. Diving to one side to avoid the machine gun fire, she leaps up and plants one foot on a wall.

    She pushes off the wall with the full force she can muster and it launches her through the air towards the first goon. If she can put enough force behind the kick she could actually kick him into the second goon. This would be a great way to eliminate both threats at once and leave the boss by his lonesome.

Maya has posed:
Maya is delaing with the bombs at this point, she'll let the others deal with what's going on here. Right? hopefully the other can keep them off her back. She looks it over. She's going to have to make a dive for the bomb.

"Worry about the skulls!"

Maya then breaks into a run and is more htan willing ti home base slide to ty to reach the bomb so she hopefully can get to work on it.

Demetrios Vasilikos (769) has posed:
    The Bone Daddy takes the hit from the blazing blue beam of energy, and is pushed back against safe deposit boxes and bags of cash! That did some damage! But he steadies himself, pushes himself off the wall despite his chest smoking, bleeding, burnt, and his shirt being blown away. "Full of life, huh..." he offers, barely audible over the alarm.

    Meanwhile one of the Gunners focuses his submachine gun fire on Maya, as she dives for the bomb, only to belatedly realize that shooting towards the bomb may be a bad idea. Thankfully, Rebound pulls that aggro off of the Blue Witch before they can be any unfortunate accidents by kicking the Lieutenant into the other Lieutenant, who was trying to find a way to shoot around his boss at the too-fast Rebound!

    The pair seem disrupted by the impact, and the first Gunner might be out of the fight entirely. The second one probably is too, since he's not really making any effort to stand up. With the Lieutenants out of the way, it's just the Boss and the bomb remaining! And Maya's progress bar is almost full!

    Right then, Mr. Bones charges right at Cory! ...Only to suddenly thrust his arms out to the sides as he comes to a stop in the vault's outer corridor. The essence of the souls of Rebound, Maya, and Cory may get leeched away suddenly! A creeping, painful, dark feeling results for anyone affected (and possibly an interrupted disarming progress). Some sort of magical/spiritual damage. And then that soul energy flies to Mr. Bones as he throws his head back and clenches his fists. And now HE'S glowing with a vivid, pulsing white aura of his own...

    He finishes his earlier comment as he brings the empty, dark pits in his mask back down to look at the saiyan warrior. "...I'll just fill up on YOUR lives." He seems significantly stronger than he was a few moments ago, for those who can measure such, either by magic or Ki or bestial instinct. But when he's gaining a portion of the power of as many as three strong heroes, that's only to be expected! Hopefully that's a temporary power up!

    He lunges forward, his movements faster than before, his hand glowing with stolen life energy but trailing cloudy ribbons of darkness from his fingertips as he tries to seize Cory by the throat with one hand and then unleash a flurry of darkness-shrouded punches with his other that, if they land, hit with as much force as any saiyan, all aimed at Cory's stomach!

    Despite his sudden power increase, Mr. Bones is still painfully injured from the potent Ki blast. His deathly magic doesn't seem to have healed him at all. It just increased his offensive potential. Some more attacks may just cut him down to size, now that he has no backup... Unless he has some other trick up his sleeve!

Cory (768) has posed:
    "What... trickery...?!" Energy absorption is new to Cory, but she feels the weakness set in just as she's pondering what to do. The Saiyan girl wobbles unsteadily as her strength momentarily fails her, and then - WHOOOSH! She's turned into a living punching bag. Blow after blow strikes her gut, distending her body painfully and forcing blood from her mouth! not much sound beyond raspy gasps though, given the hand around her throat. She clutches at it in a complete panic.

    Is this the end for her?

    Why no, not at all! For she still has full use of her legs and tail while her hands struggle to free her breathing!

    And she quickly shifts from flailing to fighting! Like raging pistons her legs bunch up then rocket for Bones' gut! Every swinging motion brings her tail into range for a FACESLAP! Back and forth, back and forth!

    It's just a question of who gives out first...

Rebound (750) has posed:
    With the two lieutenants down, Rebound lands back on the tile, only to feel her energy getting syphoned off from Mr. Bones' attack. She drops to a knee for a second, still hurting from the shotgun blast she took earlier, but she's determined to see this though.

    With the big guy focusing on Cory, Rebound decides to use a maneuver that she hasn't employed in a very long time. She moves up behind Mr. Bones and swings.

    What impressive maneuver is she trying to unleash? Nothing. She's just trying to sucker punch him in the artery that runs up the side of the neck. Iterruption of bloodflow can cause people to drop unconcious easily.

Maya has posed:
Maya us now being fired upon and she is about to yell something thankfully Rebound's on the job and she's working to get to disarming it, She's already starting to generate a field of water about it to hopefully dampen things if it is going to go off. However then something is leeching away as she's working. Maya looks at him for a moment pained and the water vanishes.

Blue fire flares up from her body as she looks at the Skull.

"Idiot children you spit upon the dead, tap cantrips and you think it makes you strong?!"

Maya's got a lot of power to drain off it seems Maya focuses upon a barrier spell about a spell. She has half a mind to sick Thanatos himself upon this Skull, but she's got to finish disarming the bomb. Cory and Rebound will have never seen Maya like this. Her tone isn't so much parental as something else entirely.

Demetrios Vasilikos (769) has posed:
    Mr. Bones may be tougher than the other Skulls so far, and he may have scary magic powers that have barely been shown yet, but he is still (more or less) just a really strong human. Saiyan super strength is painful, and he has to let go of Cory as he is being kicked and tail-whipped. Bruised, possibly with cracked bones (his own, in addition to chips in his skull mask), he immediately attempts to siphon life energy from Cory again after releasing her... This time with the intent of healing himself!

    Thankfully, Rebound punches him in the neck, disorienting him and sending him dropping to his knees. With his attempt at healing interrupted, the pummeling he took from Cory, on top of the Ki blast to the chest, when the shroud of white energy engulfing him fades away due to no longer being able to contain the stolen power, he seems to have run out of fight.

    He falls on the floor, face-first, unconscious.

    While that's happening, Maya's scary voice and great power are reined in in order to focus on the more pressing matter of the bomb. With the training she has received for Paragon City bomb squad dealings, along with her own personal experience in her past, she succeeds in disarming the bomb. The device's lights go out, the plastic explosives are rendered unconnected to the device, and all seems to be well.

    Tellers rescued: Both. Skulls Defeated: All. Bomb Disabled: YES.

    Dun DUN dun dun DUNNN... DAH!

    MISSION COMPLETE